Medical tubing, including oxygen tubing and other types of tubing, is commonly used to connect a user to a medical device (e.g., an oxygen source). When a user is moving or being moved in relation to the medical device, there is a strong tendency for the tubing to become kinked, unconnected from the medical device, and/or heaped or strewn in inconvenient and potentially dangerous manners.
Various devices have been created to increase the mobility of people using medical tubing. Of these, many provide ways for coupling the medical tubing and the medical device to the user, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,383,528; 4,438,764; 4,739,913; 5,370,113; 5,676,135; and 6,003,744 and in U.S. Pat. Publication No. 2002/0104860. While these may be useful in situations where the user is moving over large areas, they are not ideal for users moving over smaller areas because the user is having to carry or otherwise maneuver the weight of the medical device unnecessarily. Previously, there has not been a convenient way for the user to travel within a defined radius of a generally-stationary medical device without either: 1) enduring problems (such as those mentioned above) with the medical tubing that connects the user to the medical device; or 2) exerting excessive attention and energy to maintain the medical tubing in an orderly fashion.